Taro Tarot EP

After jetting from Liars pre-Drum's Not Dead, Pat Noecker isn't about to let his own career turn into a fool's errand. His bass teamed with ex-Liars drummer Ron Albertson, Noecker preserved Liars' rhythmic gusto with n0 Things, a band already DOA by the release of their intriguing debut. Making sure history doesn't repeat itself, Noecker's newest project These Are Powers follow up their late-2007 debut Terrific Seasons with an EP that should guarantee these self-described "ghost-punks" don't fade away quite so quickly.

Laugh at the spectral label all you want, but Noecker's post-Liars projects, and TAP in particular, have established an MO of making very blunt, visceral rock/punk tropes feel like a vague out-of-body experience. Like the finest no wave and post-punk acts it so blatantly mined from, Terrific Seasons transmogrified stomping blues beats and tribal war dances into something that makes you wake up in a cold sweat instead of moving your feet. However, somewhere between that record and Taro Tarot, TAP's decided there's more in life than gross-out noise collages and unfeeling graveyard jams. While still a little too ungodly to capture our hearts, this EP contains "ghost-punks" of the Ghostbusters variety-- spooky at first but not without a mischievous charm.

For all its moaning guitar parts and haunted house reverb, opener "All Night Services" sings the blues at its most traditional, replete with mentions of Mississippi and pulsating, if not sexy, drums. While hardly fit for a juke joint, the track recalls n0 Things's tendency to take standard song conventions and rip out their innards. "Chipping Ice" easily stands as TAP's most accessible song yet, downplaying the jungle drum arrangements in favor of a rapid-fire bass/snare/cymbal onslaught. Coupled with a shuffling bassline, Noecker's sassy shrieks suffer a similar fate as John Lydon's sepulchral take on disco, too catchy for nihilistic no wave, too grotesque to pass for a plausible dancefloor number.

Unfortunately, after the stately harmonics fanfare of the Killing Joke-inspired "Cockles", the EP backslides into a more homogeneous gruel. Of course, for a seasoned noise fanatic this gruel goes down easy, but there's little distinguishing it from an Excepter or Black Dice B-side. As a trial balloon, though, Taro Tarot unequivocally succeeds. Merely a few months after their debut LP, TAP are sporting new tricks and establishing themselves as potential movers and shakers in their field rather than another footnote on Noecker's resume.